The kids are getting older and older and while I’m enjoying getting more adult questions, I do miss the little kids I used to have.
This past morning, Diane and I woke up at 5am to a bang. We don’t have thunderstorms in the Bay Area (strange, right?) so we were shocked to get rocked by some good thunder. So was the rest of the house. The dogs started barking and then suddenly Hunter was in our room with a “did you guys see the lightning!?” and then a few minutes later Sasha jumped in our bed and asked, “Is this an earthquake?” The dogs then both jumped on the bed and all of the sudden we had 4 people and 2 massive dogs sharing our bed as we listened to the storm rage above us.
During the days, it’s often that both kids would rather escape to their room to call friends or watch their own movies on their iPads than hang out with Diane and I. So, it made my day to have a brief moment of snuggle time with the entire family. I know that lightning like this won’t strike that many times more as these kids get older and older.
Sasha had a soccer tournament all weekend. Two games on Saturday and a game on Sunday. I remember laying in bed before the weekend began, talking to God and saying, “Wouldn’t it be cool if she actually won this tournament?” I knew it was sort of impossible because the team hadn’t been doing that well as a team and the last tournament we went to they lost all three games. That said, they had been getting better.
Bright and early Saturday morning in Sunnyvale they played a team they’ve lost to twice already (the Mustangs). It was a well-fought game. Our team scored a goal to go up 1-0 in the first half, then the other team was charging and charging and charging the entire game, but they couldn’t score and the game ended. So we won 1-0. Wow, that was nice.
The second game, the same thing happened. We scored a goal early and then we held on to the very end to win 1-0.
That was the end of Sasha’s first two games. Then I went to go coach Hunter’s game in the afternoon. Hunter’s team is the worst team in the league, and the team we’re playing is one of the best teams in the league. Last time we played them, they scored four goals in the first five minutes, and then they had to start taking players off and stop trying to keep from running up the score. So, I was not excited for a shellacking.
On the car ride to the game, I had a conversation with Hunter, and we agreed that as long as he tried hard and stayed positive, no matter what the score, we’d both have a good game. When I got to the field, I conveyed that to the rest of the team saying “Hey, this is a good team, but if we try hard and stay positive, we’ll have a good game.” And as luck would have it, the other team ended up scoring two goals in the first half, but we were battling and we were fighting and we weren’t getting our asses kicked like we had before. At the end of the game, it was 4-0, but our team was happy. We all left the field thinking “Wow, that was the best game we’ve ever played and we’re really getting better.”
Then Sunday came around (my birthday). I was distracted because we didn’t know what to do with Hunter and Diane for the day. We were up in Marin and Sasha’s game was down in Sunnyvale. We didn’t know whether we should drag them 2 hours down south to watch Sasha’s game, just to turn around and drive back. Seems like a waste of time for a 13-year-old who’d rather be doing anything else. But ultimately I decided, “You know what, this is my birthday and I’ll be really bummed if I’m sitting in an office park in Sunnyvale talking to random parents for hours and not with my family on my birthday.” So I got the full team into the car. We’re all going. We may be in Sunnyvale but at least we’ll be together.
Sasha had her game at 1pm and we got off to a good start. In fact, Sasha scored the first goal to put us up 1-0. And we fought hard but the other team was a good team and really put the pressure on us. They scored another goal towards the end of the game and were about to score at least one more when the game thankfully ended and so we escaped with a tie, 1-1.
Because we had won two games and tied one, we made it to the finals to play the best team of the tournament, Marin FC, who are really good. We’ve played twice already this season and they’ve beaten us each time. So again, we had the attitude, “As long as Sasha plays hard and stays positive, we’ll have a good time.” Sasha had already anchored on how fun it would be to get a second-place medal. She’d never gotten a single medal before (in her life) and even getting the second-place one would be really fun. She was excited.
The game started and they were indeed really good but we were scrappy. We were scrappy in a way we hadn’t been scrappy before and we battled as they were bigger and more physical. The other team was good and they scored a goal to have us down 1-0 at halftime. But we fought back in the second half. We had a chance here and there and we actually scored one goal towards the end of the half to make it tied 1-1. CeCe scored the goal – it was kind of a long shot that dipped right inside the inside post.
And then with the game winding down, probably two minutes left, we got a corner kick. It came straight to Skoog who one-timed volleyed it right into the goal for us to go up 2-1. We were all sort of amazed at what happened and then before we knew it the game was over.
I had forgotten about my small request to the man above from the beginning of the weekend. But it’s amazing that we won the tournament. It seemed so impossible. The joy on Sasha’s face was really something.
It was a great experience for her and for us as a family. Hanging together rooting for each kid at each game and for each to compete hard and to emerge with big smiles on their faces.
Someone asked me what I got for my birthday, and I had to reply: I got everything I could ever wish for, and maybe a little bit more.
Sasha just started her first day of school today (5th grade) and is growing up. She’s confident and social and loves her friends (Astrid and Malin). She loves our dogs (more than anyone else in the family). She’s still a kid but I can see her getting more and more mature.
She made this video this summer and it cracks me up. Anyone who’s seen The Croods should recognize it.
Over the past few months, I’ve been dealing with a nerve issue in my lower back that’s been pretty brutal at times. After a flare-up in January, I got hit about a month ago with sharp, throbbing pain down my left leg that made simple things like walking, sleeping, or any kind of physical activity a real challenge. Continue reading “My Back Injury”→
Every Christmas, my mom gets all the boys a shirt, and they’re great shirts that I wear for years. This Christmas was no different. She got me, my dad, and the boss a great shirt.
I put it on immediately and the next day I put it on again. My sister and I were sitting at lunch at this diner in Minneapolis, and she said, “You should wear that every day.” I said I should. She said “I’ll give you a dollar for every day that you wear it.” which sounded good to me. Continue reading “I’m Streaking….the Same Shirt”→
I always enjoy the writings of Tim Urban and love his blog Wait But Why I recently saw a tweet of his where he visualized the life of a typical American. It looks like this:
Our trip to Ireland was great. I was surprised how small an dintimate the cities were. I found Dublin incredibly modern and the west coast the opposite. We explores a lot. Some details…. Continue reading “Euro Trip 2024 – Ireland”→
The entire family took a spring break trip to Italy and Ireland. The trip was pricey and tiring but we had a fantastic time and made some memories that we’ll remember forever. This post is just the start of our trip.
Given that this was our first real trip as a family, my main goal was for everyone to just have a good time and want to travel more. On that front, it was a huge success. We had no arguments, meltdowns or even disagreements. We had a blast.
It was also huge for the kids. They were able to experience being in another country where they saw new cultures, new languages and people who didn’t look or talk like them. You could tell it was eye-opening. Hunter especially loved it. He said that if there’s one place he wants to live in the world it’s Rome.
On to some day-to-day details. I’m doing this (below) mostly so I remember exactly what we did.
Thursday (24 hours before the trip)
We were supposed to leave Thursday morning but Diane and I went out of breakfast on Wednesday and we discovered that Italy won’t let us in with Diane’s passport as it expires in 74 days. This is news to us. After initially panicking and thinking about cancelling the entire trip, Diane hustled her face off and got to the passport office and managed to get a passport turned around in 24 hours. We pushed our flights back one day and were off on Friday.
Friday
We’re off. It’s a long flight but everyone’s pumped.
I’m going a little crazy. It’s not from my family but more a lack of everything else. I miss my friends, my casual acquaintances, drop-off at my kids schools, the restaurants, the movies, the casual interactions, the hiking, the driving, the traveling. All of it. It was fun. I can’t wait wait for this madness to be over.
Just wrote a scathing Yelp review of my living room
